Self-government, the Constitution and Europe. That's the Spanish government's recipe to solve the conflict with Catalonia. The prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, gave the summary from Costa Rica during his tour of Latin America and said that "majority of Catalans support self-government but not independence".
Sánchez has again accused Catalan president Quim Torra, as he did yesterday, of addressing only part of Catalan society. "It's the largest minority, but it's not the majority," he said. The prime minister opted to advise the Catalan government to "open a dialogue between Catalans" because, in his opinion, "Catalonia needs to speak with Catalonia" to resolve the "clear social harmony crisis".
Sánchez and Torra have been trading statements in recent hours, the prime minister now responding to the Catalan president asking him to stop "making threats" using article 155 of the Spanish Constitution. He justified his statement yesterday as a "warning" because "the unilateral path was already resorted to last year".
He also gave his support to his cabinet's position this lunchtime over "giving an opportunity for politics". In that context, he noted the plan to hold a cabinet meeting in Barcelona in the next few months, the activation of bilateral commissions ("where we will talk about what matters to the Catalans"), and the meeting he will have with Torra in Catalonia before the end of the year.
Sánchez was also asked, in the press conference after his meeting with the president of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado, about the 40th anniversary of the Spanish Constitution coming up this December. "This is a government which will defend the Constitution and its validity", he said, praising the "territorial cohesion and unity of the Spanish people" he believes it has led to.